Managing Coopetitive R&D and Innovation: A Project-Level Perspective

The disputation will be held digitally. Spectators may follow the disputation digitally – link is available below.

Sanja Smiljic of the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder has submitted her thesis entitled «Managing Coopetitive R&D and Innovation: A Project-Level Perspective» and will defend the thesis for the PhD-degree Thursday 25 November 2021. 

She has followed the PhD-programme at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder, with specialisation in International Business.

The doctoral work is based on a cotutelle agreement between UiA and RMIT. Sanja Smiljic was employed at UiA which is her main institution, while tuition fees at RMIT in Australia, where she spent one year, was covered by Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Summary of the Thesis by Sanja Smiljic:

Managing Coopetitive R&D and Innovation Projects

In this dissertation, Sanja Smiljic has explored how competing companies from mature manufacturing industries collaborate in R&D and innovation projects.

Knowledge of complex interactions between competitors

Sharing knowledge and complementary resources can help competitors to reduce costs and risks, stimulate innovation, enter new markets and develop new products.

Collaboration between competitors, however, poses a high risk of technology imitation, knowledge leaks and weakened market position.

Therefore, while the number of established R&D and innovation collaborations between competitors in mature manufacturing industries has grown, many such efforts fail, so more knowledge about managing their complex interactions is of high academic and practical relevance.

Six R&D and innovation projects

This dissertation explored six R&D and innovation projects that, besides competitors, also include non-competitive partners.

The empirical data consist of 48 interviews with high- and middle-level managers from competing companies, project managers, cluster managers, and employees from universities and research centres involved in the sampled projects.

Throughout three research papers, the dissertation has revealed how competing companies evaluate the opportunity to join the projects, how the tensions in those projects can be successfully managed and the specific role that other, non-competitive partners may have in the projects.

Useful findings

The findings of the papers can help project managers, competing companies and all other partners, that aim to join the forces in coopetitive projects, to understand these complex interactions and their consequences and act knowledgeably.

Disputation facts:

The trial lecture and the public defence will take place online, via the Zoom conferencing app - link below.

Dean Roger Normann, School of Business and Law at the Universitety of Agder, will chair the disputation.

The trial lecture Thursday 25 November at 09:00 hours

Public defence Thursday 25 November at 10:00 hours

 

Given topic for trial lecture: «Coopetition: when to compete, when to collaborate, and why it matters for innovation»

Thesis Title: «Managing Coopetitive R&D and Innovation: A Project-Level Perspective»

Search for the thesis in AURA - Agder University Research Archive, a digital archive of scientific papers, theses and dissertations from the academic staff and students at the University of Agder.

The thesis is available here:

PhD Thesis lacking 2 articles Sanja Smiljic

Kappa and Article 3 are available in the PDF. Articles 1 and 2 will be included when they are published in the journals where they are accepted. A complete thesis can be obtained from the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder. Please contact Miriam Høgseth Joakimsen, contact info in the left column.

 

The Candidate: Sanja Smiljic (1984, Kikinda, Serbia) BA in "Financial management and accounting", University of Novi Sad, Serbia, MA in "Management", University of Novi Sad, Serbia.

Opponents:

First opponent: Professor Frederic le Roy, University of Montpellier, France

Second opponent: Professor Fredrik Hacklin, ZHAW School of Management and Law, Switzerland

Professor Kalanit Efrat, Department of Management, University of Agder,  is appointed as the administrator for the assessment committee.

Supervisors in the doctoral work were Professor Tor Helge Aas, UiA and Professor Anne-Laure Mention, RMIT Australia

What to do as an audience member:

The disputation is open to the public, but to follow the trial lecture and the public defence, which is transmitted via the Zoom conferencing app, you have to register as an audience member.

We ask audience members to join the virtual trial lecture at 08:50 at the earliest and the public defense at 09:50 at the earliest. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time. Further, we ask audience members to turn off their microphone and camera and keep them turned off throughout the event. You do this at the bottom left of the image when in Zoom. We recommend you use ‘Speaker view’. You select that at the top right corner of the video window when in Zoom.

Opponent ex auditorio:

The chair invites members of the public to pose questions ex auditorio in the introduction to the public defense, with deadlines. It is a prerequisite that the opponent has read the thesis. Questions can be submitted to the chair Roger Normann on e-mail roger.h.normann@uia.no